Alan Dearling shares some images and words
Toria opened the show for King Creosote. She says of herself and her music, disarmingly, on her Facebook:
“Never thought an album opener with only two chords and 14 seconds of ambient drone would get a national radio play but here we are!”
She told us that she is a ‘massive Goth’! She certainly was wearing black. And she sang a song indebted to Susan Hill’s ‘Woman in Black’.
‘That’s what falling in love will do’ was, in my personal view, my pinnacle point in the set. A great song and well performed. As she moves into recording her second album, I’m sure that she’ll become a considerable talent on the Nu-Folk scene. I’d like to see a little more edginess added to her performance. She’s very endearing, pristine, and intense at the moment, but perhaps a little ‘wholesome’ to move into the Indie circuit outside of the folk world. But hey, ‘That’s what falling in love will do’ is lovely song too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kWFdzLU-OM
‘Lefty’s Motel Room’ is another one of Toria’ high points from her album. Very much quality Americana. On the album she has a great array of fine musicians and some lovely pedal-steel guitar. On her own just with her guitar, her music is more austere, but still retains its haunting quality. She is very much in the same musical vein as Katherine Priddy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-52YfmSgsA
King Creosote is the stage name for Kenny Anderson, an independent singer-songwriter from Fife, Scotland. He has released over forty albums, and his latest full length, ‘I DES’, came out 2023. Anderson is also a member of Scottish-Canadian band, The Burns Unit.
His set commenced with electronic organ/synth sounds on ‘Aurora Boring Alias’ and ended with the elegiac, ‘Bats in the Attic’, which is rather lovely. Take a look at the official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK4WAKc9R4g
King Creosote has created some memorable songs and has a highly distinctive voice, including a falsetto, which he uses almost as a call and response style.
During his performance King Creosote shared a lot of his opinions of the world and what was wrong with it. He ear-marked wind turbines (“they should be land-fill”), having to wear masks during the pandemic (his daughter created a mask-exemption certificate for him), 5-G masts, electro-magnetic fields, and there has been a lot of controversy surrounding his recent song, ‘The Good Guys’, which lists people who he claims have given him a new understanding of the world order. But he is perhaps being ironic. It’s hard to tell. If he truly believes in the conspiracy opinions of folk like Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Neil Oliver and Candace Owens, it’s all rather worrisome. Free speech is fair enough, but some of these ‘good guys’ are pretty dangerous. Ultimately, the ‘King’ has very strong opinions on many environmental and societal issues.
‘Love is a Curse’ video from Green Man festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8wpxVA9SKc
Here’s a recent video from Chris Trew of the ‘King’ live in Stockton singing, ‘Spystick’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6pbvnEUbs0
My friend Pauline is a big fan. Here are her thoughts on the gig:
“Ah, King Creosote got full comedy mileage out of his few hours spent in Todmorden. He blatantly admits his songs were ‘depressing’, no not really, King. The ambient backing tape (or whatever the modern terminology is) plus keyboards made a joyful, seductive sound to complement the King’s mesmerising vocals (who can sing like him?). I was nearly in tears with the last song. What is depressing is he won’t be touring for a while – he says he needs to write a new album. No, King just gives us the best of what you’ve already got.
But don’t you just love ‘Diamond Mine’, one of the few cds I play over and over again.”
It was a packed concert at the Unitarian Church which really is a wonderful venue. Kenny Anderson’s album, ‘Diamond Mine’ with Jon Hopkins was released in 2011 and was nominated for the Mercury Prize.
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